Lifestyle

that I have now got everything finished and wrapped up. I have excelled myself this year, as last year it was a made panic to get everything finished and wrapped in time for the big event. So this year I made sure I had it completed early.

I shop for Christmas all year round, I love to find a bargain, online or in the shops. But over the last couple of years I have spent more time looking online for those bargains. It could be a fabulous cashback offer, a brilliant sale that I just caught at the end with an extra discount or it could be a deals online site. When my children were much longer I did almost all of their Christmas shopping in the sales, often hitting it big with the January sales. Now however it is more difficult as they are asking for gifts and not quite so happy to have anything, they both make lists nearer Christmas, plus at the age of 5 the latest doll isn’t out until later in the year. Heaven forbid she didn’t get the last baby doll she wants haha.

Making a list, checking it twice!

Each year I write a list of everyone who I have to buy gifts for, both birthdays and Christmas. I then add ideas to the list with a question mark next to it, sometimes I come up with a great idea for someone on the list and then I forget what it is. So I have to write my ideas down. Then as I buy a gift for each person I then write it down with the price and tick it off. All of this is on my phone, so I always have it with me.

A few years ago when my closest friend had her 3 child, we decided that we would no longer buy Christmas gifts for each other and the children, but spend a bit more on their birthdays. The first couple of years it seemed odd to me not buying the boys gifts but now we are both pleased we don’t have that extra expense over Christmas. I now have this rule with a couple of other friends, I just have one other that I need to arrange this with, but it will wait until next year. I find that I spend £10-£15 on each for her children and she does the same for me. This year I have struggled to come up with gifts for mine, as they haven’t really asked for too much. So I find myself coming up with a gift for the sake of it.

I also cook a large Christmas dinner and I try to make my own christmas cake, but I have found that it’s cheaper to by a fruit cake and decorate it myself. It’s just another one of my money saving tips for this Christmas.

The other way I like to save money for Christmas is to put a little bit aside each month, so I know when it comes to ticking all of the items off the list I know I have money there to do it.

How do you save money for Christmas? I would love to hear your top tips.

I love Christmas shopping, well shopping in general, I’ve spoken about it many times. I do generally online shop for most things, the main thing I don’t do online is food shopping. As much as I hate food shopping I just have never got my head around online food shopping.

When I shop online I always look for a discount code or a Christmas cashback site to use for it. I am always looking at ways to save some money, it helps me to justify everything that I buy and it’s quite a lot. My Christmas shopping has just about all been completed online.

Along with the 42% of people who do their Christmas shopping online or so statistics say, I do almost all of mine online. The thought of walking around shopping centres or city centres with large shopping bags really puts me off.

Did you know that you could have a chance of winning all of your money back each time you shop online? How fabulous is that?

Hello Boom25

Boom25 is ‘not your regular cashback site’ where by you can get a small percentage of our shopping in cashback. Boom25 gives you the chance to win all of your money back. Sounds great to me.

So how does it work?

I have spent some time looking at their website so find out just how it works and how easy it is to use. Like will all many of the cashback sites it is free to sign up too. Once registered you can start of track your shopping activity, in your account area you can see this and it shows you any winnings or bonuses you have made. You then find the retailer you are wanting to shop with, click through to their site, on you have made your purchase you then need to pray you are a winner.

Boom25 pays out winnings to every 25th purchase made using their site. So that’s a 1:25 chance of winning the cost of your shopping back. It’s then paid to you via PayPal, just don’t forget about their fees that gets taken off as well. If you a making a large online purchase it might well be worth while giving Boom25 a go, you could get everything you paid back.

I love the idea of Boom25, when I get my head around online food shopping I might well give it ago. As it supports so many online retailers with all of the major supermarkets being there. Why not give it ago.

Antique and vintage jewellery has been popular for a long time, and there are many different years where the jewellery is still in vogue even today. If you have a passion for jewellery and want to better understand where your favourites pieces have come from, below is a summary of the most popular ears for jewellery.

Image:- Pixabay

The Georgian Era from 1714 to 1830

The Georgian era is named after the British kings George I, Gorge II, and George III, spanning from 1714 up to 1830. During this era, jewellery was predominantly worn by the upper classes and is more about the size and cut of the stones, rather than the intricacy and beauty of the jewellery itself. As such, many Georgian pieces were broken and reused to create other pieces of jewellery, which makes what survived highly collectable.

The Victorian Era 1837 to 1901

The Victorian era was also named after the British monarch, Queen Victoria, and it is said that the style of jewellery at the time often mimicked her life. Popular during this time were hearts, bows, birds, as well as flowers, and during this time, it also became fashionable to wear darker coloured jewellery which incorporated black enamel, fossilised coal, as well as black onyx.

Art Nouveau Era 1880 to 1910

The Art Nouveau era did not last for very long, but it did have a big impact on jewellery design which can still be seen today. The era is famous for getting inspiration from nature and also for using new types of material such as horn, copper, or shell. The popular precious stones for this era were freshwater pearls, amethyst, amber, opal, and citrine.

Art Deco Era 1920 to 1939

Within this era, symmetry was embraced which is reflected in the geometric designs that became popular during this time. You can see some excellent examples of Art Deco pieces such as vintage watches from Kalmar Antiques. Bigger and brighter stones were used during this era with rubies, sapphires, and emeralds being popular.

Edwardian Era 1901 to 1915

During the Edwardian era, the most popular materials that were used for jewellery are diamonds, platinum, as well as pearls. The style was thought to be the epitome of sophistication with its white on white design. The jewellery designers of the time would often look at Ancient Greek, Roman, and Napoleonic art for inspiration when designing their jewellery.

Image:- Pixabay

Retro Era 1939 to 1950

The retro era is the final one in antique jewellery, and the jewellery that was created in this time is also known as cocktail jewellery. With films being extremely popular during this time, the demand for Hollywood style fashion also grew.Many of the stones that were used were oversized while keeping a playful feel. It was also a time when many synthetics were introduced, and alloys became a more popular choice for the metals used.